@ BB, as I wrote before, the main problem that confuses lots of users is that Poser allows everything to be connected to everything.
Even the worst combinations are possible.
Want a devide by "0"? No problem.
Put a Blinn in Diffuse_Color? No problem
A Glossy in transparant?
A Specular node in the Bump or Displacement channel?
Or chain them all up?
Even when total garbadge arrives, Posers material room allows it.
Please do, no limits; Some might even make sense to somebody...

And then, one gets the strangest results and gets frustrated, or quits.

(Remember from a past discussion that I allways open up all windows, because I want to see what is happening.)

Let me give one more.
An easy one : The HSV node.
Hue? At what number are we back at ZERO change?
Somebody?
Any takers?

If the hobby end user has to test, and try out each and every possible combination?
He"ll have Poser 2020 before he is finished with PP2012.
And we only covered the material room, what I often call (with a smile) the "Math room".

By Poser 2030, he"ll have tested the Cloth room, the hair room, and still has to try the face room.

Yes, from that point of view, I understand the OP's question.

Or??
We limit ourselves to what we know, and work with the little we know.
And build our workflow around that.

Most of what I see in the Galleries comes from Mc Donalds.

A pre-morphed figure, V4 plus Morphpack++, some dials spinned.
A sword from freestuff with Poser 7 materials. Some adapted with BB  metals, (or not) 
A light préset => When you are lucky adapted to PP2012 lights
A bought background and some props with Poser 6-7-8 textures=> texture filtering stayed at None. Or be lucky again and find it set at quality.

Render=> Upload.
Finished.

It is like being a pilot; Engage the autopilot and sit back.

Yes, the Math room could be more structured. (Sorry, this time I wrote "Math room" automatically)
Only allowing connections that make sense.
Giving WARNINGS when doing something stupid.

Knowing in the back of our heads that the average Poser hobby user has about one free hr a day (at best) to "create" something.
He /she (sorry ladies) does not have weeks or months to figure out all nodes and all possibilities.

YES;
We thank you for all the help and math here (I got it right this time) but also know we forget as we are not working full time in Poser.

If SM want to make Poser more user friendly, the Material room is the one to start with.

"Its all there, figure it out".

Leads to posts like this.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!